Is there a thread for those of us trying to deal with the college lifestyle such as dining hall eating, no money, dealing with all of the people who eat nothing but pizza and beer without gaining weight(lol), etc.? If not, are there any other college students trying to deal with weight loss and college?

Me!
Fortunately, I do not live in student housing so I do have the benefit of having my own food to eat vs the dining hall, HOWEVER, I am 21, which means the whole bar temptation thing. My city has one of the highest numbers of bars in a SMALL area, making bar hopping the most popular thing to do on weekends (or weekdays for that matter). The city almost promotes drinking. Example: Graduation weekend a few of the bars open at 6 AM so grads can get drunk before the 9 AM commencement.

That being said, I've been on this new lifestyle since June, and have managed to lose 75 lbs! I think the main thing we college students have to REALLY focus on is the planning aspect of weight loss. I allow myself to "go out" ONCE a week or less. The night out is only that NIGHT, not the entire friday, or the hungover next morning. I allow myself to eat the burger or couple slices of pizza and have a couple drinks (thankfully it does not take much alcohol to get me to my limit).

Do you have to eat at the dining hall? What other obstacles besides peer pressure are you facing?

Not that I know of but there is a 20-something forum that has quite a few college students
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=56

The town my school is in is very tiny and has almost no apartments around. Once you move out of the dorms to a campus house, you can be taken off the meal plan but as long as I am in the dorms I have to eat in the dining hall. Also, eating in the dining hall is a way to see friends and people I don't normally see. I have a very small budget so buying all of my own food is difficult without resorting to Ramen(which is not helpful for weight loss).

I am the same way with drinks, two or three is enough for me. My favorite mixer is Sprite Zero because it tastes like real Sprite but has no calories. That and Mike's Light Hard Lemonade, which is pretty good once you get used to it

MEE! I don't drink so that's not a problem, but the dining hall is horrendous on my self control. We should start a thread! I feel like there are a ton of college specific problems. Right now I'm trying to save money and eat healthy and I end up eating only 1200 cals a day or overdoing it

Hi Peachy!

I was never able to eat well in undergrad (I went to a college in a tiny town in Indiana too! DePauw...go Tigers!). I lived in campus housing and was on the meal plan my freshman year. I had a stick for a roommate and she would constantly buy mini Pizza Hut pizzas and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream so, of course, I ate it too. Then, my sophomore and junior years, I lived in my sorority house and that wasn't conducive to good eating habits either. My senior year I was back on the meal plan. In all honesty, I didn't ever really try to lose weight during my undergrad years. As a result, I bypassed obviously healthy items in favor of ones that were easier to grab-and-go.

I started grad school this past year, and I have no money and have to deal with classmates wanting to go out after every class and get wings and beer, so I feel your pain. I'm living at home though, so it's easier for me to persuade my mom to buy healthy things. I schedule time to work out, that way I have no excuse to skip it.

Once I started putting the effort in, I've found it's actually not as hard as I thought it would be to lose weight while in school. Stress makes me want to eat, but I've learned to focus on my goals and not let some minor assignment that will be done with in 2, 3, 6, whatever weeks, get in the way of the larger picture of weight loss. I am no where near perfect at this, I still screw up a lot!

I suggest you make small changes first and take the time to review the healthy items in your school's dining hall. You may find that there are more than you thought! And, avoiding the pizza and beer just takes willpower unfortunately, lol.

I don't live in a dorm anymore, but I have to deal with the busy college schedule still, so I know what you mean. Those dining halls are so terrible! All the food has many more calories/fat than you would expect or get from the same dishes made at home. Is there any way you can make your own food?
If not... you've just got to stick to the very, very simple foods there. Things that can't have added ingredients (for example, they put any number of fatty things into mashed potatoes). Pick fruits and veggies as often as possible, egg whites and oatmeal, etc.

It's not a perfect situation, and it means you're going to have to be stricter than you would have to be if you made your own food, but it's more than possible.

Hey! I tried to make a thead about this in the 20-somethings forum just a couple of days ago, but didn't get an awful lot of replies.

In my first year at uni I lived in halls of residence (like dorms) with a dining hall, and it was horrendous weight-wise. I put on 30lbs in my first year! In addition to the dining hall food, we were going out drinking maybe 4 nights a week, which led to pizzas after a night out (a habit that thankfully I seem to have broken!!). In my second year I was living in a private flat, but I was very stressed and unhappy about who I was living with and uni in general, and I put on another 30lbs - not GOOD! I started actually feeling unfit that year too - just felt like I couldn't move myself with the speed or the easiness that I was used to. Since moving into my new flat in September, things have gotten a bit easier, and even though I still binge and eat badly from time to time, it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. I'd love to see everyone else's experiences and how they deal with it.

Does your college have a sports centre or gym? Mine does, and it's brilliant, but very, very busy all the time. However, where I live (Edinburgh) is such a beautiful city to walk around in, that I'm trying to make the most of that, while ignoring the fact that Edinburgh has the largest bar to person ratio in Europe!!!